Supermarine Aircraft About us Contact Supermarine Aircraft has been in business for the last 20 years selling our Spitfire kits. Over the past 15 years, we have developed engines and our own, higher quality, re-drive system for better engine performance. Our Spitfires are sold and flying all over the world. There are Supermarine Spitfire reproduction kits currently flying in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa and Canada. Throughout the last 20 years, millions of dollars have been spent on research and development to come up with a product that is safe and is a world leader in quality and innovation, but most of all, a joy to fly. Supermarine Aircraft Kits come with color manuals. All components are prefabricated. Main Spar fabricated and assembled. Wing Spars fabricated and assembled. All control surfaces fabricated and temporarily assembled. All hardware is of aircraft grade (nuts, bolts, rivets). All completed components are corrosion protected. Fuselage shell is completely ready for fit out. The wings are pre-assembled, then disassembled for flat packing. Hydraulic undercarriage legs include alloy wheels and disc brakes.

Michael (Mike) O’Sullivan’s Supermarine Aircraft Factory officially began its life in the kit aircraft manufacturing business in 1992, although the original idea is much older. The Mk26 and Mk26b are now well proven designs with all aluminum components pre-drilled and precision cut using a computer controlled CNC router cutter. This keeps parts standards consistent and accurate, a far cry from the original Spitfires construction methods. The main structural sections of the aircraft are pre-built in factory jigs thus ensuring the highest possible accuracy of these critical components. The method of construction is aimed at the average person who is good with their hands. The Supermarine Spitfire Supermarine Spitfire There is, without a doubt, that the Supermarine Spitfire was one of the most famous of all World War Two aircraft. It was glamorized by the media, and children young and old would look up towards the skies watching a dogfight or see a squadron of RAF fighters come swarming in towards a formation of German bombers. They would hardly know one aircraft from another, but they would all include a Spitfire in their exclamations. "It's a Spitfire" or "D'yer see that Spitfire shoot that bomber down, weeeeeooooooow".

But the Spitfire that we knew at the end of the war was far different from the version that flew in the Battle of Britain and even to that of pre 1939 Spitfires. At wars end, the Supermarine Spitfire was a streamlined fighting machine, it was the mainstay of Fighter Command, but let us not take anything away from the Hurricane which in itself was a superb aircraft. Supermarine gained their experience in fast and manoeuvrable aircraft with experience gained in winning the Schneider Trophy Air Races. But the concept of the Spitfire really began way back in 1930 when Supermarine submitted their design (Westland and Blackburn Aircraft Companies also submitted designs) in relation for the construction of an all metal type fighter aircraft that would have a fabric covered wing area as well as tailplane sections. This was to comply with specification F.7/30. The wings were of gull wing design, the fixed undercarriage had streamlined fairings over the wheels, and it was powered by a single Rolls Royce Goshawk engine which provided just 600 horsepower giving the Type 224 a top speed of only 228 miles per hour (367 kph).

Armament was two .303 guns in the fuselage and one in each of the wheel fairings. The 224 first took to the air on 19th February 1934, and because of its poor performance it failed to be accepted as a potential fighter aircraft. Supermarine had great plans for the Type 224, but because of its failure in every department, the company had to do something quick to be able to prove to the authorities that they were capable of producing a good hard working fighter aircraft. THE TYPE 300 - SPITFIRE MK I - SPITFIRE MK II - SPITFIRE MK III Supermarine had for some time enjoyed success in aircraft design and with many aircraft bearing similarities to the Schneider successes including the 224, something different had to be designed. Sydney Camm was now in the process of designing the Hurricane at Hawker's works at Weybridge. Naturally Supermarine knew of this and it soon became apparent as to the design and the potential of the Hurricane. Reginald Mitchell set about in designing a completely new type of aircraft.

They stayed with the required specifications as called by F.7/30 in producing a metal bodied cantilever type fighter aircraft. Mitchell decided that the wings should be metal as well as the fuselage believing that fabric covered wings on an aircraft with a metal body at high speed would provide the aircraft with weak spots. The cockpit of the aircraft was enclosed and formed part of the design lines of the body, while the narrow undercarriage was retractable with the wheel being lifted into wheel wells under the wings. The design was a streamlined, yet strong, an aircraft that had all areas that would cause any form of resistance to wind removed. It was claimed, as the aircraft made its early test flights that not only did this Type 300 look exciting it was yet the most attractive aircraft ever designed. By the end of 1934 the Type 300 was eventually ordered as a prototype, and further testing was done and it was put through a series of strenuous tests.

By 1935, the aircraft with its Rolls Royce PV12 now glycol cooled engine (this engine was later to be known as the Merlin), and four .303 Browning machine guns in each wing gave a performance good, or maybe even better than expected. The aircraft flew on official tests in March 1936, and by June of the same year, and by now the name Type 300 had been dropped and the name Spitfire had been officially adopted, the aircraft went into production as Spitfire Mk I. Already Rolls Royce had reworked the Merlin power unit and the Merlin II and III had the power output increased to 1,000 hp. The basic design was a 12 cylinder unit in V formation. The first Spitfire I's began flying on May 14th 1938 with the first of them going into service use by the RAF in August. Flying the Spitfire was like driving a sports car. It was faster than the old Hurricane , much more delicate. You couldn't roll it very fast, but you could make it go up and down much easier. A perfect lady. It wouldn't do anything wrong.

The Hurricane would drop a wing if you stalled it coming in, but a Spitfire would come wafting down. You couldn't snap it into a spin. Beautiful to fly, although very stiff on the ailerons - you had to jam your elbow against the side to get the leverage to move them. And so fast!!! If you shut the throttle in a Hurricane you'd come to a grinding halt; in a Spitfire you just go whistling on. [1] P/O H.G.Niven 601 & 602 Squadrons, having flown both Hurricane and Spitfire. Spitfire Mk I's remained until June 1940, but until then, thirty of them had been equipped with twin 20mm cannons at the expense of the .303 Brownings. To distinguish the two, the Spitfire Mk I's equipped with machine guns were designated IA's, while those that had the cannons fitted were designated IB's. In all, 1,537 Spitfire Mk IA's were built and 30 Spitfire Mk IB's.

The Spitfire IB's were not favoured with pilots, the cannons were often jamming leaving them a defenceless aircraft and pilots requested to be returned to the Spitfire IA's. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Mk I's were the mainstay of Fighter Command along with the Hurricane. When air support was needed in Norway and in France, Fighter Command sent only one squadron to Norway and ten to France. By this time Britain had lost some 500 fighters in this early part of the war. The Mk I Spitfire was to continue service throughout the Battle of Britain, and was a worthy opponent of its German equivalent, the Messerschmitt Me 109. But in August 1940, at the height of the battle, the Spitfire Mk I gave way to a faster and more powerful Mk II with its Merlin Mk XII power plant. Most of these MK II's were to arrive after the Battle of Britain, although some squadrons had been allocated them in late August and during September 1940. The first recorded Mk II being shot down was with 611 Squadron on September 11th 1940.

By now, the Supermarine Spitfire, with not only the specifications, but as further testing of the aircraft proved, was a fighter aircraft that was superior in every department to anything that was flying at the time. Sleek and swift, manoeuvrable, strong and well constructed. The Merlin engine had received a power increase to 1,175 horsepower and was designated the Merlin XII. The differentiating versions of A's and B's continued and production of these totalled 751 Mk IIA's and 170 Mk IIB's. The Spitfire Mk III, also introduced in 1940, but not allocated to operational service until 1941, while still cosmetically looking like a Spitfire, it had a greater improvement in airframe construction and also had a reduced wing span. Again, improvements had been made to the Merlin XII engine and was redesignated the Merlin XX, and the tail wheel was also made to retract into the fuselage.

When it seemed that the Mk III was almost at its best, and in July 1940 it was intended to build 1,000 of them, but a slightly redesigned version, a prototype Mk V was under way and testing was being done on a four cannon arrangement. Because of this, the target of 1,000 Mk III's was never reached. Supermarine Spitfire Mk IA Specifications Type Merlin 66 (1,705hp) Merlin 70 (1,655hp) 1,658 units were produced. Developed as a general purpose fighter. Many variants were made using a variety of Merlin engines. These can be read in both columns 1 and 3. Most of these aircraft saw service in the Middle East. Spitfire XII Late 1943 Griffon IIB (1735hp) Once known as the Mk IV and first prototypes ordered as early as 1940, and used the Rolls Royce Griffon engines. 750 were originally ordered, but development was slow and did not fly till Nov 1941. Saw service in 1943 and only 100 built.

Changed to Mk XX Spitfire XIV January 1944 Griffon 65 (2035hp) 957 units were built. Longer nose, large radiators and vertical tail, this two stage supercharged Griffon engine with 5-bladed propellers gave the XIV a top speed of 450mph. Two cannon and four .303 machine guns as armament. Spitfire XVIII June 1945 Griffon 65 (2035hp) Very similar to the XIV, but having lengthened fuselage, more vertical tail, increased fuel capacity and strengthened wings. Only 300 built. Spitfire 21 April 1945 Griffon 64 (2375hp) First prototype early as 1942, was to have been the second prototype IV, New wing design and ailerons. Called the Victor for a time. Carried 4 x 20mm cannons, wider undercarriage track extra fuel capacity. 120 units were produced. Spitfire | British aircraft | Britannica.com British aircraft R.J.

Mitchell Spitfire, also called Supermarine Spitfire, the most widely produced and strategically important British single-seat fighter of World War II . The Spitfire, renowned for winning victory laurels in the Battle of Britain (1940–41) along with the Hawker Hurricane , served in every theatre of the war and was produced in more variants than any other British aircraft. Supermarine Spitfire, Britain’s premier fighter plane from 1938 through World War II. Quadrant/Flight The Spitfire was designed by Reginald Mitchell of Supermarine Ltd., in response to a 1934 Air Ministry specification calling for a high-performance fighter with an armament of eight wing-mounted 0.303-inch (7.7-mm) machine guns . The airplane was a direct descendant of a series of floatplanes designed by Mitchell to compete for the coveted Schneider Trophy in the 1920s. One of these racers, the S.6, set a world speed record of 357 miles (574 km) per hour in 1929.

Designed around a 1,000-horsepower, 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled Rolls-Royce PV-12 engine (later dubbed the Merlin), the Spitfire first flew in March 1935. It had superb performance and flight characteristics, and deliveries to operational Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons commenced in the summer of 1938. A more radical design than the Hurricane, the Spitfire had a stressed-skin aluminum structure and a graceful elliptical wing with a thin airfoil that, in combination with the Merlin’s efficient two-stage supercharger , gave it exceptional performance at high altitudes. The version of the Spitfire that fought in the Battle of Britain was powered by a Merlin engine of 1,030 horsepower . The plane had a wingspan of 36 feet 10 inches (11.2 metres), was 29 feet 11 inches (9.1 metres) long, and reached a maximum speed of 360 miles (580 km) per hour and a ceiling of 34,000 feet (10,400 metres).

Faster than its formidable German opponent the Bf 109 at altitudes above 15,000 feet (4,600 metres) and just as maneuverable, Spitfires were sent by preference to engage German fighters while the slower Hurricanes went for the bombers. More Hurricanes than Spitfires served in the Battle of Britain, and they were credited with more “kills,” but it can be argued that the Spitfire’s superior high-altitude performance provided the margin of victory. Similar Topics F-16 Meanwhile, Supermarine was developing more-capable versions of the Spitfire driven by progressively more-powerful Merlins. The eight 0.303-inch machine guns gave way to four 0.8-inch (20-mm) automatic cannons, and by war’s end the Spitfire had been produced in more than 20 fighter versions alone, powered by Merlins of up to 1,760 horsepower. Though outperformed by the German Fw 190 upon that aircraft’s introduction in 1941, the Spitfire restored parity the following year and eventually regained the advantage. It remained a first-line air-to-air fighter throughout the war.

Spitfires were used in the defense of Malta , in North Africa and Italy , and, fitted with tail hooks and strengthened tail sections, as Seafires from Royal Navy aircraft carriers from June 1942. Spitfires helped to provide air superiority over the Sicily , Italy, and Normandy beachheads and served in the Far East from the spring of 1943. Fighter-bomber versions could carry a 250- or 500-pound (115- or 230-kg) bomb beneath the fuselage and a 250-pound bomb under each wing. One of the Spitfire’s most important contributions to Allied victory was as a photo-reconnaissance aircraft from early 1941. Superior high-altitude performance rendered it all but immune from interception, and the fuel tanks that replaced wing-mounted machine guns and ammunition bays gave it sufficient range to probe western Germany from British bases. In late 1943 Spitfires powered by Rolls-Royce Griffon engines developing as much as 2,050 horsepower began entering service.

Capable of top speeds of 440 miles (710 km) per hour and ceilings of 40,000 feet (12,200 metres), these were used to shoot down V-1 “buzz bombs.” During World War II, Spitfires were exported in small numbers to Portugal , Turkey , and the Soviet Union , and they were flown by the U.S. Army Air Forces in Europe. When production ceased in 1947, 20,334 Spitfires of all versions had been produced, 2,053 of them Griffon-powered versions. Britannica Stories TXAA:Supermarine Aircraft Company now located in Cisco, Txas April 10, 2010 Supermarine Aircraft Company now located in Cisco, Txas In the spring of 2011, TxDOT safety director Bill Gunn received an exclusive tour of the new Supermarine Aircraft Company factory located in Cisco, Texas. Supermarine Aircraft is an established aircraft kit manufacturer.

For the past 20 years, Supermarine has developed and successfully marketed the Mark 26B Spitfire, a 90% all metal replica of the famous WWII warbird from their headquarters in Brisbane, Australia. The aircraft is powered by the General Motors LS2 V8 Corvette engine which delivers 430 HP. Following an invitation from our government, Oï¿½Sullivan is opening this branch factory in Cisco, Texas to help develop this popular kitplane closer to his customer base. This move will also help the Texas economy. Watch this YouTube video of Bill visiting with CEO Michael Oï¿½Sullivan. BBC iWonder - Why do we love the Spitfire? BBC iWonder 1. A symbol of victory Presented byJames HollandHistorian The Spitfire is the most famous plane of World War Two. Its groundbreaking design and superior specifications gave the British a decisive advantage fighting the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. But early models were often cruelly exposed in head-to-head duels with the enemy. It was only after multiple improvements that the Spitfire’s winning combination of speed, manoeuvrability and firepower turned it into a formidable killing machine and a much loved British icon. 2.

How did it match up to its German rival? The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a formidable opponent in the early years of World War Two. The two planes vied for air superiority in the Battle of Britain. Speed You selected Speed Both Spitfires and Messerschmitts could reach speeds of 350mph, but some Spitfires had a booster that increased their speed by 25-34mph for five minutes. Firepower You selected Firepower The Messerschmitt's pairs of machine guns and cannons totally outgunned the Spitfire's eight .303in Browning machine guns. Manoeuvrability The Messerschmitt could out-dive the early Spitfire. This gave it an advantage in one-on-one battles. 3. A design classic The Supermarine Spitfire Mark I was an elegant and agile fighting machine. The groundbreaking original design meant the plane could be upgraded with new engines and armaments. 4. Fighting a world war World War Two pilots describe what is was like to fly a Spitfire. Clip from The Spitfire: Britain's Flying Past (BBC Two 2011).

The Spitfire played its part in many of the crucial battles of World War Two giving the RAF a critical edge over the German Luftwaffe. The ground breaking original design meant the plane could be upgraded with new engines and armaments. As the war progressed so did the Spitfire. After the original designer RJ Mitchell died in 1937, his successor Joe Smith developed the fighter to make it faster and more powerful. Battle of Britain In 1940 Hitler sent 2,600 Luftwaffe fighters and bombers to destroy the Royal Air Force. At the start of the battle the RAF only had 640 fighters – Hurricanes and Spitfires – and German commander Herman Goering confidently predicted victory would only take a few days. Britain stepped up the production of fighter planes, building them faster than Germany. The Hurricanes, with their sturdy frames, took on the bombers. The Mark I Spitfires, with their superior speed and agility, were sent up to shoot down German fighters. By the end of the battle the better organised RAF had defeated the Luftwaffe and downed 1,887 German planes. The RAF lost 1,023 planes. The tide of the war started to turn.

Britain was now a launch pad for future attacks on Germany. Air battle for Malta Malta was a key strategic Allied base in World War Two. Axis forces laid siege to the island and attacked British supply ships. By 1942 stocks were running low. The RAF called for reinforcements and over the summer hundreds of Spitfires were shipped in by aircraft carriers. These improved Spitfire Mark Vs had a top speed of 371mph and were armed with powerful 20mm cannons. The plane proved decisive in gaining air superiority. The siege was broken and Malta became an important base for supplying British troops in Africa and launching future attacks on Italy. D-Day In June 1944 Spitfires played an important part in the biggest seaborne invasion in history as the Allies landed in Normandy and gained a crucial foothold in France. The latest Spitfire Mark IX had a 1,720 horsepower engine and was equipped with both 20mm cannons and .50 calibre machine-guns. The fighters provided crucial air support for the D-Day landings and many were adapted to be fighter-bombers to carry out attacks on German ground forces.

A new generation of Spitfires takes to the air - Telegraph History A new generation of Spitfires takes to the air Supermarine Spitfires are reaching for the sky again with a new incarnation of the Second World War fighter that can trace a direct flight path to the original Image 1 of 4 The Spifire with the shark’s teeth motif, built in Australia by Mike O’Sullivan, has been flown in air shows around the world Photo: Misty Keasler Image 1 of 4 Mike O’Sullivan, who built his Spitfires in Australia before moving to Texas Photo: Misty Keasler High Lady, named after a plane that saw service in 1944 Photo: Misty Keasler Image 1 of 4 The lettering on this plane is a tribute to the Spitfire’s designer, RJ Mitchell Photo: Misty Keasler By Charles Laurence 8:00AM BST 06 Jul 2012 It's thumbs-up, and with a roar the Supermarine Spitfire Mk26b spins into a victory roll.

A shudder ripples through the bare ribs that line the cockpit – there was no call for the comforts of interior trim back in the days when Britain stood alone, and there is none now – and I look to starboard as the unmistakable, gorgeously curved wing dips sharply towards the trees and fields and lakes below. A moment later we are flying upside down, the steady thrum of the big V engine restored to even keel. I look up for down, face to face with the ground, and crank my chin into my collar to catch a glimpse of the sky above. My head is not banging on the canopy, and to my initial surprise I am not falling to earth. We are flying at about 160 knots, modest compared to today's Top Gun jets, but the wonders of g-forces are at work, slamming into my guts and chest. I am grinning like a maniac. My pilot, his vintage leather flying helmet cranking from side to side as if he were riding a racing motorcycle, has restored the horizon and is practising evasive manoeuvres.

He dives towards the ground in a 200-knot arc, skims the rooftops, roars up into the sun as if on a roller-coaster ride and pulls so hard to port that the Spitfire seems to still for a fraction of a second before sliding into a curve on which we can feel in the small of our backs some perfect balance of aerodynamic forces. It is Texas below us, the 'hill country' west of Dallas stretching away to all points of the compass, but it is impossible not to see the coppices of Kent and the thunderous shadows of enemy bombers, nor to watch the sky for telltale plumes of smoke. I cannot get Winston Churchill's voice out of my head. Inside, the Spitfire seems smaller than I had imagined. From the cockpit, the wings look shorter, stubbier; the tail is lower and the landing wheels would look at home on a go-kart. Inside, along with the whiff of gasoline and hot grease, there is a scattering of instruments around the gun sight on the dash and a compact joystick with a trigger button that reminds you of what these planes were designed for.

There's a reminder, too, of the perils of flying one back in the 1940s: a 180-degree mirror mounted dead centre above the canopy to offer the widest possible view of an attack from behind, the one to dread most in a dogfight. Philip Goforth, hired to fly the Spitfire at air shows and displays at US Air Force bases, is at the controls; he offers another thumbs-up. Far too young to have fought in Vietnam, let alone in the Second World War, he earns his living flying corporate jets for an oil company while practising his aerobatic skills at the Reno Air Races, but he, too, is smiling from ear to ear. What made a Spitfire fly well in battle makes it a lot of fun to fly in peace. A voice crackles into the earphones; it comes from a group of people we see gathered beside a hangar on the airstrip far below. 'Come in low over the hangar,' it says, 'and give us a good hammering.' We are climbing and diving and turning again, coming down low enough to count the rivets in the tin roof of the hangar.

Then Goforth does one last, long turn with the throttle back, before we glide gently down to earth. Related Articles Spitfires buried in Burma during war to be returned 14 Apr 2012 The Spitfire comes to a halt, its propeller stilling and its engine ticking as it cools. Hot vapours hover over the stubby exhaust vents, one per cylinder in line down each flank, the nose pointing skywards in parked position. This plane is particularly fetching: it is painted in High Altitude Blue for camouflage against the heavens, and named High Lady after a Spitfire flown over Berlin on a reconnaissance mission by an American, Major Walter Weitner, in 1944. Every Spitfire has a story. Goforth slides back the canopy, places his flying helmet on the windscreen and jumps down from the wing. Counted in. Safe home. The plane is in fact brand new, billed not as a replica of the original fighter that served the RAF but rather as the latest in a line of development going back to the 1930s. Mike O'Sullivan, the sole owner and driving force of Supermarine Aircraft, has built 92 Spitfires so far.

'The Spitfire won the war,' he says as he steps forward to clean the remains of a large bug from the wing. 'It did! It was the only aircraft to serve from beginning to end, and it won hearts and minds around the world. When you fly a Spit, it is larger than life.' The Spitfire has a unique place in the world's affections, not only as a piece of extraordinary aeronautical engineering but also for the role it played in keeping hopes alive in the darkest hours of the war. Aeroplane buffs still declare it the best fighter ever made, not because it was the fastest (it was, but briefly) or the best armed (it never was) but because of the way it flew. It came from a line of racing seaplanes, a prestige sport of the 1930s, which meant it moved unlike any other military aircraft. Its defining feature was the elliptical wing shape, which allowed it to turn sharply and quickly; like a very few fine cars, the Spitfire has a grace, a perfect marriage of form and function. The first Spitfire flew in March 1936, and the last left service with the Irish Air Corps in 1961.

It was flown in arms by Australia, Canada, South Africa and every Commonwealth country, by independent India, by Czechoslovakia and Poland, and was Israel's first warplane. Stalin was sent 1,000 to help him stop Hitler in the east, and the Americans bought a few squadrons' worth. In all, 20,351 took to the skies. In the Battle of Britain, Spitfires outperformed their workaday stable-mates, the Hawker Hurricanes, in the cold statistics of proportion of kills to losses, even though there were twice as many Hurricanes in the air (the RAF lost 357 Spitfires and 601 Hurricanes in the course of shooting down 1,562 Luftwaffe planes). 'There is nothing that evokes so much passion as the Spitfire,' O'Sullivan says. 'I have had veteran pilots fly with me who come down crying.' That, he adds, 'can be a bit embarrassing'. For the past 18 months O'Sullivan has been headquartered in Hangar 7 at Cisco Airport, Texas, where he is also the airport manager.

Even the check-in girl at the local motel wants to know why O'Sullivan chose Cisco, one of those small towns of tumbleweed and tumbledown storefronts that litter the Western landscape, to build an aeroplane that has such a vivid place in history. The answer is simple: 'It reminds me of home.' Home is the Australian Outback. O'Sullivan, 58, was born, bred and learnt to fly as a boy on Tongy Station in Queensland, which his family owned, a vast sheep and cattle station sprawled over 200,000 acres. O'Sullivan likes being in the middle of nowhere. Supermarine is the proper, authentic manufacturer's name for the Spitfire, the British company which employed the man who designed it in 1931, RJ Mitchell, a revered figure among aficionados (he died of cancer in 1937, a year before the Spitfire entered service). There are several other small companies making Spitfires, most of which are really wood-and-canvas light aircraft that look like Spitfires, but only O'Sullivan has the name, and only his Spitfires are made, just like the original fighters, entirely of aluminium.

So how did the hallowed name of Supermarine, the old Southampton-based aviation company (half of all Spitfires were built in West Bromwich after the Southampton factories were flattened by the Luftwaffe), end up on a tin hangar in Texas? O'Sullivan did not buy the name Supermarine: he was granted it by the descendants of the owners of the old West Midlands aircraft works, out of business since the early 1950s, in a kind of blessing. He had been building his Spitfires in Australia for 14 years when he was approached in 2008 by a commercial attaché from the US Embassy in Canberra scouting for businesses that might be tempted by grants and tax breaks to relocate to parts of America where boom had turned to bust, and thus provide an infusion of capital and opportunities for work. O'Sullivan saw an opportunity to move closer to his growing market. 'Of course, I would really love to be building these in England,' he says. He has sold more than 30 in Britain and there are more on order.

'But sad to say, there is a regulation against absolutely everything in Britain, and I could never get one built.' He tells a story of visiting a customer in England and having to wait four days for an aviation inspector to arrive and complete paperwork, inspect licences and so on, before he could remove the propeller on a Spitfire he had designed, made and sold. 'Sad,' he says. The Mk26b, O'Sullivan's designation for his latest design, continued the mark numbers used by the original Supermarine factory, with each modification earning a new number (the last of the originals being Mark 21). It is not cheap, and demands time and work. It comes as a kit, mainly to get around those dense thickets of regulations. So you pay $175,000 for the airframe, disassembled into perfectly fitting pieces, and about another $50,000 for the engine, either a General Motors V8 or a Honda V6 – the only unapologetically modern component in the kit. The rest, down to the dummy machine guns, is as close to the original as possible.

(In 1939, a Spitfire cost £12,604.) Then it takes an estimated 1,200 hours to put it all together. It is also possible to buy one 'used', ready to fly. O'Sullivan has one in the hangar, in full RAF battledress, which he built for himself in Australia and has promised to a customer. It works out at roughly the same as buying a more utilitarian light aircraft, say a single-engined Cessna or Piper. Unlike the original Spitfire, you get two seats, the second squeezed behind the pilot, because even the most diehard re-enactor is going to want to take a passenger for a ride. The Mk26b, 7.24m long with a wingspan of 8.43m, is actually 90 per cent the size of the original, a technical distinction for the most part. In engineering terms, there is an exponential formula which means that an extra 10 per cent in weight and drag would demand double the horsepower, and that would necessitate a more expensive, less reliable 'hot rod' engine. The people who buy these Spitfires are enthusiasts.

They build them as the project of a lifetime, and they fly them at air shows. And they fly them because the Spitfire is still regarded as one of the 'sweetest' flying machines ever designed. 'It's so pure, so lovely, so harmonised,' is how O'Sullivan puts it. 'Nothing else comes near it.' O'Sullivan has become the keeper of something bigger than a business, and it might be a kind of providence that selected him for his mission, which began with an accident. 'I was out on the station, a long way from anywhere in a four-wheel drive, when I went over a really big bump, and when I landed a piece of iron rod went up into my spine and paralysed me. It was a bad moment,' he says. 'Well, out in the Outback, there's only one thing to do, because there's no help anywhere around – you keep going.' He kept going all the way back to his ranch house, which he shared with his (now ex) wife and son. He drove into the wall because he could not use his legs to operate the brakes. 'I lay on the veranda for a couple of days.

It was agony, but there's no hospital down the road and the Flying Doctor was away at the time,' he goes on. O'Sullivan had learnt many things growing up on the station, among them the idea that if you stay put and endure, you might heal. That didn't happen, and eventually a neighbour came by and hauled him 100 miles to the emergency ward. He credits his recovery mostly to a 'wonderful German woman therapist who taught me to walk again', but he realised that he could no longer farm. 'One fall from a horse, and I'm done for.' Something else he had learnt in the Outback was how to fix things, because if you did not, no one else would. If, for instance, your truck was many miles into the desert and broke down, you might die if you couldn't repair it. The station was full of Second World War surplus and scrap, bought cheap – even tanks, adapted as bulldozers – and by the time he was 10 and learning to fly, O'Sullivan could get almost anything running. He spent a lot of time with his uncles, who had flown for the RAF.

They used an old bomber, bays intact, to distribute feed, and small planes to round up the herds. They also imbued him with the idea that of all mechanical objects ever made, there was nothing that could hold a candle to a Spitfire. 'So I get home from the hospital, can't work, and decide to build one,' O'Sullivan says. He found some drawings and mechanical descriptions, engaged 'one old boy who knew how to drill holes', and disappeared into a barn. 'It had to be a secret, because in Oz we don't brag about stuff, and if it had been a failure, I wouldn't have wanted anyone to know,' he explains. Tongy Station had had its own governess and schoolteacher, and O'Sullivan came to wish he had spent more time paying attention in maths. There was a bit of a crisis when rumours got out that he was up to something in his barn. Luckily, nobody made the expedition into the Outback to take a look. Two years later O'Sullivan and his old farmhand rolled out a Spitfire. He confided at last to his best friend and they got it to a bush airstrip.

'We got her started and I took her bouncing down the strip, picked up some speed, and we lifted off just beautifully,' he says. 'I got up a couple of thousand feet, and I had both hands up in the air, off the stick, yelling, "Yippee!" ' A short while later the engine cut. 'No problem, I glided down and did a dead-stick landing,' he goes on. 'That's when I knew I'd got it right. A Spitty, you see, flies. A lot of planes, even the other wartime fighters, you lose your engine, and you fall like a stone. Not a Spitty.' After a while, O'Sullivan thought he would get his Spitfire certified, and make some more, as interest proved immediate when word got out via the local newspaper. But the first professional engineer he went to refused to be associated with so rank an amateur, and 'told me get out of his office'. The next finally agreed to take a look after O'Sullivan flew it down to him. 'He spent two days looking at it, measuring things, without saying a word,' O'Sullivan recalls.

'Then he said: "How the hell did you make this?" He is still my engineer. When we brought the first one to England, he made me swear never to tell anyone that I wasn't a qualified engineer, that I am self-taught, because they'd never have certified it.' Even today, O'Sullivan has not been able to fly High Lady himself, because the Americans, who invited him into their country, have refused to recognise his Australian flying licence (he is in the process of applying for an American one). It took them months to issue a certificate of airworthiness so he could put a Spitfire in the sky above Texas. But in the meantime he is employing eight men full-time at his factory, with 11 Spitfires on order. 'It's all worth it,' he says. 'I feel a certain obligation, to the people who gave me the Supermarine name, to the veterans who told me that my planes really do fly like theirs did, and to the Spitfires themselves. They shouldn't be allowed to die, for what they did for the world.'

Question: Which aircraft company manufactured the Spitfire?
Answer: Supermarine